Use your ears to ID trees!

Biologist David George Haskell teaches students how to identify trees by the sounds produced by air moving through their leaves or raindrops spattering on them. “Depending on the shapes and sizes of their leaves, the different plants react to falling drops by producing ‘a splatter of metallic sparks’ or ‘a low, clean, woody thump’ or a ‘speed typist’s clatter.’ Every species has its own song. Train your ears (and abandon the distracting echoes of a plastic rain jacket) and you can carry out a botanical census through sound alone.” Full story is available in The Atlantic.